Pick it: Jaron “Boots” Ennis vs. Uisma Lima
When to Watch: Saturday, October 11 at 8 p.m. Eastern Time (1 a.m. BST)
Why to Watch: After unifying world titles at welterweight, Jaron “Boots” Ennis is entering junior middleweight against Uisma Lima, a contender whose lack of name recognition doesn’t negate his good recent track record.
Ennis, 34-0 (30 KOs), is a 28-year-old from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who will be headlining in front of his hometown crowd at Xfinity Mobile Arena (formerly the Wells Fargo Center).
Ennis, long touted as the future of the welterweights while Terence Crawford and Errol Spence ruled that division, won the interim IBF belt in January 2023 with a shutout of Karen Chukhadzhian, and knocked out Roiman Villa in 10 rounds that July.
Although Crawford unified all four titles three weeks later with his stellar stoppage of Spence, Crawford never fought again at 147lbs. And so Ennis was upgraded to the IBF’s full titleholder in November 2023.
He made three defenses: a five-round stoppage of David Avanesyan in July 2024; a unanimous decision in a more competitive rematch with Chukhadzhian last November; and a six-round beating of Eimantas Stanionis this past April to unify the IBF title with the WBA title and the vacant Ring Magazine championship.
Financially and physically, it was time for Ennis to move up. While Manny Pacquiao has returned, there really aren’t any other big names at 147, and Ennis shouldn’t hold out for Pacquiao. So he’s now in one of boxing’s most packed weight classes. Although he hasn’t competed yet at 154, Ennis is ranked No. 1 in the division by the WBA and WBC, No. 2 by the WBO and No. 6 by the IBF.
The four junior middleweight titleholders are Bakhram Murtazaliev (IBF), Abass Baraou (WBA), Sebastian Fundora (WBC) and Xander Zayas (WBO), and there are also other contenders such as Brandon Adams, Andreas Katzourakis, Erickson Lubin, Vergil Ortiz Jnr, Jesus Ramos and Keith Thurman, among others.
Lima, 14-1 (10 KOs), is a 32-year-old from Angola who may be flying under the radar for boxing fans who haven’t followed his career – though it’s also understandable if people want Ennis to be facing bigger names.
“Uisma Lima's combined opponent record of his last four fights (all wins) was 66-1,” noted Grey Johnson of BoxRec. Indeed, since losing a wide decision to unbeaten middleweight prospect Aaron McKenna in 2023, Lima has outpointed the 14-1 Araik Marutjan in Germany, returned to Germany to stop the 18-0 Haro Matevosyan, earned a wide decision over the 19-0 Sukhdeep Singh Bhatti in Canada, and stopped the 15-0 Shervantaigh Koopman in South Africa.
“This is a better recent run of form (actually winning fights, and on the road) than [Israil] Madrimov, [Charles] Conwell, Conor Benn, and Tim Tszyu,” Johnson wrote.
I know this is hard to hear.”
Lima is ranked 8th by the WBA, 9th by the IBF and 10th by the WBC.
The undercard includes a heavyweight fight between prospect Alexis Barriere and Guido Vianello. Barriere, 12-0 (10 KOs), stands 6-foot-4 and feels he has gotten valuable experience working as a sparring partner for Tyson Fury. Vianello, 13-3-1 (11 KOs), is 6-foot-6 and is a measuring stick for other big men: He has lost to Jonathan Rice, Efe Ajagba and Richard Torrez Jnr, stopped Arslanbek Makhmudov due to a swollen eye, and fought Kingsley Ibeh to a draw.
Also on this show is a welterweight bout between the 15-0 (11 KOs) Tahmir Smalls – who came in overweight for his last outing – and Jose Roman Vazquez, 14-1 (6 KOs).
More Fights to Watch
Friday, October 10: Deonte Brown vs Grimardi Machuca (DAZN)
The broadcast begins at 9 p.m. Eastern Time (2 a.m. BST).
Brown, 16-0 (11 KOs), is a 29-year-old from Louisiana whose recent outings have been around or above the lightweight limit but will be competing at junior lightweight for this bout. In May, he won an eight-round shutout against the 24-17-1 Dennis Contreras. That was Brown’s first fight back from a three-year layoff.
Machuca, 17-2 (14 KOs), is a 34-year-old from Venezuela who has dropped two in a row: a unanimous decision in May 2023 against the 21-1 Pablo Vicene and a unanimous decision in September 2024 against the 19-1-1 Branden Pizarro.
On the undercard is a rematch between bantamweights Saul Sanchez, 21-4 (12 KOs), and Edwin Rodriguez, 12-9-2 (5 KOs). Rodriguez triumphed in their first meeting, giving Sanchez his first pro defeat via split decision in 2019. Since then, Sanchez has gone 9-3 and is coming off a first-round TKO loss last October to an overweight John Riel Casimero. Rodriguez has gone 1-4-1 since and last fought in July 2024, dropping a majority decision to the 11-1 Angel Barrientes.
Friday, October 10: Paul Ryan vs. Edward Donovan (Triller TV)
The broadcast begins at noon Eastern Time (5 p.m. BST).
This show in Dublin, Ireland, is headlined by a middleweight bout between Ryan, 8-2 (3 KOs), and Donovan, 7-1 (1 KO). The undercard includes a handful of prospects as well as middleweight Spike O’Sullivan.
Saturday, October 11: Dave Allen vs. Arslanbek Makhmudov (DAZN)
The main broadcast begins at 2 p.m. Eastern Time (7 p.m. BST). A preliminary undercard will start at 11:30 a.m. ET (4:30 p.m. BST).
Allen, 24-7-2 (19 KOs), is a 6-foot-3 heavyweight who resuscitated his career following a pair of fights with Johnny Fisher – a very close split decision loss last December avenged by a decisive fifth-round stoppage win in May.
Allen had retired once before and considered retiring again heading into the first meeting with Fisher. He turned pro in 2012, lost a pair of fights in 2016 to Dillian Whyte (UD10) and Luis Ortiz (TKO7) and dropped a split decision in 2017 to the 20-4 Lenroy Thomas. In 2018, Allen was dispatched in the 10th round by Tony Yoka, an Olympic gold medalist who has underwhelmed in the paid ranks.
But Allen put together a four-match win streak, including a third-round body shot KO of Lucas Browne in 2019. That landed him a bout three months later with David Price, who battered Allen so badly that he was taken out of the ring on a stretcher. By the end of 2020, Allen considered the damage he’d taken, as well as a frightening moment in a sparring session with Oleksandr Usyk, and decided to hang up his gloves.
As often happens, the retirement didn’t last. Allen came back in August 2021 and picked up three victories over no-hopers before taking on Frazer Clarke in September 2023. That fight ended after six rounds due to Allen suffering a busted eardrum. In 2014, Allen added two more wins against foes with a combined record of 10-39.
He was then going to be fed to Fisher, an undefeated prospect. Instead, Allen summoned his experience and showed that he wasn’t quite done yet, especially against someone as flawed as Fisher. Allen dropped Fisher in the fifth and had to settle for the short end from two of the three judges. He didn’t let the rematch go to the scorecards. And now the 33-year-old “White Rhino” will headline in Sheffield, England, a home game for the resident of Conisbrough.
Makhmudov, 20-2 (19 KOs), is a heavyweight who stands just shy of 6-foot-6 in stature but has fallen short when stepping up his level of competition.
The 36-year-old is from Russia and lives in Montreal, Canada, where he’s competed for most of his pro career. Makhmudov debuted in 2017 and ran off 18 straight victories, including stoppages of Jonathan Rice (TKO7), a long-faded Samuel Peter (TKO1), Mariusz Wach (KO6), Carlos Takam (UD10) and the previously unbeaten Raphael Akpejiori (TKO2).
But in 2023, Makhmudov took on Agit Kabayel and was dropped three times en route to a fourth-round TKO loss. Kabayel is now regarded as one of the top heavyweight contenders, so that defeat might not sting as much in hindsight.
More damaging, however, was Makhmudov’s eighth-round stoppage loss in August 2024 against the 12-2-1 Guido Vianello, who shut Makhmudov’s left eye until it was too dangerous for the fight to continue. Makhmudov spent about 10 months away before returning this past June, needing less than two minutes to dispatch the 12-0 Ricardo Brown.
The undercard includes Josh Padley vs. Reece Bellotti and a rematch between Junaid Bostan and Bilal Fawaz.
Padley, 16-1 (5 KOs), is fighting for the second time since stepping in as a late replacement to challenge lightweight titleholder Shakur Stevenson in February. Body shots put Padley on the canvas thrice in that fight en route to a ninth-round TKO loss. Padley returned in April with a fifth-round stoppage of the 13-0 Marko Cvetanovic. But instead of remaining at 135lbs, Padley has dropped down to junior lightweight for this match.
Bellotti, 20-6 (15 KOs), has topped out at the European level. He’d suffered three straight losses while competing at featherweight: decisions dropped to the 12-1-1 Francesco Grandelli in 2019 and the 24-1 Jordan Gill in 2020, and a third-round TKO to a young Raymond Ford in 2021. Bellotti then moved up to 130lbs and earned six consecutive victories before losing a 12th-round TKO this past July to the unbeaten Ryan Garner.
Bostan, 10-0-1 (8 KOs), and Fawaz, 9-1-1 (3 KOs), are junior middleweights who fought to a draw in January. BoxingScene’s Tom Ivers, in his deadline piece, believed Fawaz deserved the decision.
Saturday, October 11: Karen Chukhadzhian vs Joel Mafauad (DAZN)
The broadcast begins at 1 p.m. Eastern Time (6 p.m. BST).
Chukhadzhian, 25-3 (13 KOs), is a welterweight contender back for the second time since his rematch loss to then-titleholder Jaron “Boots” Ennis in November 2024. Chukhadzhian, a 29-year-old from Ukraine, returned in May with a wide decision over the 13-2-1 Cristian Javier Ayala.
Mafauad, 13-1 (5 KOs), is a 28-year-old from Argentina. His last loss came against the aforementioned Ayala in May 2023, which means this may be a step down for Chukhadzhian. Mafauad is on a four-fight win streak and most recently won a seventh-round TKO in August against the 17-6-3 Jose Hugo Acevedo.
This show is taking place in Riga, Latvia.
David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.
